House of Fraser

The HOUSE OF FRASER Archive

Record: f6-2624-7

Financial accounting - Hugh Harkess

Dates: 1921-1946Description:
Financial accounting is the activity of processing, recording, classifying and
analysing information on financial transactions between the company and third
parties, and between the company and its employees.

Biographical history
The firm's accounting system comprised funeral order books (ref: FRAS 887),
private funeral ledgers (ref: FRAS 889) and customer invoices (ref: FRAS 893).
When customers requested a funeral, their requirements were entered in the
funeral order books. The details recorded in these books included the price of
each element of the funeral. Entries were posted from the order books to the
funeral ledgers. The page number of the corresponding entry in the order book
was recorded next to each entry in the funeral ledger. Invoices were
subsequently sent out to each customer. The date of payment of each account was
recorded in the ledger. Frequently, customers were unable to pay their accounts
and entered into correspondence about this with the firm. These letters (ref:
FRAS 893) were kept loose inside the funeral ledgers.
In 1946, H & W Harkess Ltd took over Hugh Harkess' financial accounting
system, after Hugh Harkess joined William Harkess to form H & W Harkess
Ltd.